Taylor introduces the GS Mini Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Submitted by GSite_Editor on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 10:09.

Taylor Guitars has introduced the GS Mini, the next generation in the company's line of ultra-portable and playableacoustic-electric guitars. Featuring a scaled-down version of Taylor's popular Grand Symphony body shape, the GS Mini boasts a bold voice and impressive tonal depth that belie its compact size, and comes ready to amplify with new, Taylor-designed pickup accessories, making it the "play anywhere" guitar for life on the go.

The GS Mini is the latest brainchild of Taylor's product development team. After 15 years of success with the company's iconic travel guitar, the Baby Taylor, Bob Taylor wanted to "up the ante." "I know there are a lot of people like me who wanted a little bit larger guitar and a way larger sound, plus the ability to amplify it," Bob shares. The product development team set out to design a guitar that was small, portable, lightweight and affordable, with all of Taylor's signature tone.

Advertisement

The company applied its latest design ideas and developed new tooling to produce the scaled-down size, which features a scale length of 23½ inches and a deeper body depth than the Baby Taylor. Compared to the Baby, the Mini is clearly a larger guitar, especially in the lower bout, yet the differential doesn't seem huge until you strum it. "In terms of its ability to put out sound, it's twice what a Baby is," Bob says. "And it's not just the volume but the depth and richness of the tone. It sounds like a full-size guitar, except that it's ultra-portable." Bob can attest to Mini's mobility and performance from personal experience: He took one with him on a recent USO tour to Iraq with the Zac Brown Band. "It was my constant companion. It was easy to take along, and nice to have when I wanted it."

To add to the guitar's "pick up and perform" appeal, Taylor also wanted to offer an acoustic pickup for the Mini, but one that could be purchased after-market and easily installed by anyone. Designed exclusively for the Mini, the ES-Go is a proprietary magnetic soundhole pickup inspired by Taylor's award-winning Expression System. Part of the ES-Go's design simplicity is that each Mini is pre-fitted for easy installation of the pickup, and can be plugged in with the guitar's discrete, snap-in interior clip.

Another accessory that was designed to make it easy to plug in and play is the Taylor V-Cable: a quarter-inch cable with a built-in master volume control. Because the Mini was designed without tone or volume knobs, The V-Cable gives players a volume control where it plugs into the guitar, putting volume control at every player's fingertips any time they plug in. "It's brilliant and simple," shares Bob. "It allows anyone with a guitar but no volume knob to add volume control. You can find it in the dark, you can turn your cable off to unplug noiselessly, and you can use it on any guitar you have."

The GS Mini features a solid Sitka top, a back and sides of sapele laminate, an ebony fretboard and bridge, and a tortoise shell pickguard. The Mini comes ready to go anywhere in a specially engineered Taylor GS Mini Hardbag and will be available at domestic Taylor dealers starting in late July at a suggested MSRP of $678. The ES-Go and V-Cable will also be available in late July through Taylor's online merchandise and accessories store, TaylorWare. Players can also purchase the Taylor V-Cable through RapcoHorizon, the manufacturer of the V-Cable.